July 2016 Posts

When we first decided to launch a startup studio, we were excited at the prospect of being able to jump right in and start coming up with ideas. But we quickly realized that we lacked an investment thesis, the guiding vision we should use to vet ideas. Coming up with one overarching and compelling thesis statement proved to be very difficult. In fact, we found that aiming for this type of clarity so early in the process was detrimental and too restrictive for our purposes.

So we took a step back and got to work developing a set of criteria that we could use as a lens to examine an idea’s merit and determine whether it is in alignment with our goals and values. Here’s what we’ve come up with so far: